More foot exercise studies to confuse you.

Don't necessarily believe all that you read. Please to not take away from this study that these 4 exercises: short-foot exercise, toes spread out, first-toe extension, second- to fifth-toes extension are golden goose exercises to rehab your athlete. On first glance if one is not thinking, that could be a mistake in translation.

"The intrinsic foot muscles maintain the medial longitudinal arch and aid in force distribution and postural control during gait."  That is a pretty bold statement by the study's authors. We would argue that a far less misleading statement would be that "the intrinsic foot muscles are a piece of the puzzle, just a piece, and to dismiss the powerhouse tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, long and short toe flexors and particularly the extensors is a glaring oversight".  Yes, I know, the authors just wanted to study the intrinsics, I get it, -- one just has to be careful of the conclusions made when the study is so microscopic compared to the global perspective at hand.  Please, read on.

This study tried to correlate the effects of these 4 exercises: short-foot exercise, toes spread out, first-toe extension, second- to fifth-toes extension on activation of the foot intrinsics muscles they chose to observe (abductor hallucis, flexor digitorum brevis, abductor digiti minimi, quadratus plantae, flexor digiti minimi, adductor hallucis oblique, flexor hallucis brevis, the interossei, and lumbricals).

They looked at the activation before and after exercise in just 8 athletes. They did not look at non-athletes and yes, this is a terribly small N sampling and the study only used T2 weighted MRI to make these conclusions.

The study's conclusion was "Each of the 4 exercises was associated with increased activation in all of the plantar intrinsic foot muscles evaluated.".  

Here is my concern*. 
Did they consider the various foot typings ? (*Caveat, I have not read the entire study, I am trying to get it). There are many variables to consider including arch integrity, forefoot type, rearfoot type, foot flexibility, step width, step length, client weight amongst other things. Yes, that makes for a near impossible study, I get it. And, it does not appear they had a control study that looked at what happened right after walking. Wouldn't it be fair, and wise,  to see what the study showed after barefoot walking for 1-2 minutes ? I bet many of these muscles show significant activation there as well, after all, they were weight bearing and stepping down on the foot which requires the muscles to be activated and utilized.  So, does that then mean these 4 exercises are any better than walking ? Does that mean they will suffice for homework for your client ? Does that mean they will strengthen these muscles ? And, does activation mean proper pattern utilization of these muscles, meaning, is there functional translation over to functional use ? Yes, that is not what the study was looking at, but for darn sure that would have been nice info to know. Just take the study for what it found, and do not step beyond those tiny boundaries. We hope that is what they will go for in the next stage of study.  To be fair, they also concluded, "These results MAY have clinical implications for the prescription of specific exercises to target individual intrinsic foot muscles."  Safe words. Yes, I capitalized the word MAY.

- Dr. Shawn Allen, one of the gait guys.

Thomas M. Gooding, Mark A. Feger, Joseph M. Hart, and Jay Hertel (2016) Intrinsic Foot Muscle Activation During Specific Exercises: A T2 Time Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. Journal of Athletic Training In-Press. 
http://natajournals.com/doi/abs/10.4085/1062-6050-51.10.07
http://dx.doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-51.10.07

Dr Ivo, talking about some of the finer points on the “Toe Waving” exercise

What do you do with these Dogs?

Take a good look at these feet. Hard to not cringe, we know. In this photo, the gentleman’s feet are relaxed! Imagine what it they will look like with some additional long flexor tone!

So, keeping in mind his tibial varum (bend in the tibia) and uncompensated forefoot varus (inability to get the head of his 1st ray down to the ground), what can we do?

• how about we increase extensor strength? He could do the lift, spread, reach exercise while tripod standing. He could do the toe waving exercise.   He could do shuffle walks.
• teach him to stretch his long toe flexors. Frequently. 20-30 mins minimum; daily
• you could manipulate his feet to ensure better biomechnics
• you could massage his feet to improve mobility and circulation
• you could facilitate his long toe extensor muscles
• you could inhibit his long toe flexor muscles
• you could improve ankle dorsiflexion by showing him how to stretch the calves, 20-30 mins daily
• you could improve ankle dorsiflexion by making sure he has adequate hip extension
• he could wear correct toes, to improve the biomechanical advantage of the long toe extensors
• he could wear shoes with a wider toe box
• he could wear shoes with less ramp delta (or drop)
• he could wear shoes with less torsional rigidity

and the list goes on. There are many simple things you teach a person with feet like this. many of them we have introduced you to here on the blog. Spend some time. Learn some cool stuff. Read the blog. Follow us on Facebook. Attend a Biomechanics class we teach the 3rd Wednesday of each month on onlinece.com . Check out our Youtube Channel. Consider furthering your education and taking the National Shoe Fit Program.

The resources are there. All you need to do is dig a little deeper.

We are The Gait Guys and we are all things gait.

The Toe Waving Exercise: Part 1

Welcome to Friday, Folks. A little exercise here for you today that we use all the time.

There are at least 3 muscles important in forming and maintaining the foot tripod. The short flexors of the lesser digits (Flexor Digitorum Brevis or FDB) are one of the important component sfor creating and maintaining the foot tripod (the tripod between the head of the 1st metatarsal, head of 5th metatarsal and center of calcaneus).

It arises by a narrow tendon from the medial process of the calcaneal tuberosity the plantar aponeurosis, and from the connective tissue between it and the adjacent muscles. As it passes forward, and divides into four tendons, one for each of the four lesser toes which divide into 2 slips ( to allow the long flexor tendons to pass through), unite and divides a second time, inserting into the sides of the second phalanx.

Because the axes of the tendons passe anterior to the metatarsal phaalngeal joint (MTP), they also provide an upward (or dorsal) movement of the MTP joint complex, moving it posterior (or dorsal) with respect to the 1st metatarsal heal (thus functionally moving the 1st met head “down”). This is a boon for people with a forefoot varus, as it can help create more mobility of the 1st ray, as well as help descend the head of 1st ray to form the medial tripod (and assist the peroneus longus in anchoring the base of the big toe). It also helps the lumbricals to promote flexion of the toes at the MTP, rather than the distal interphalangeal joint.

In this brief video, Dr Ivo explains the exercise to a patient (Thank you N, for allowing us to use this footage).

The Toe Wave: try it. Use it with your patients. Spread the tripod. We know you want to….

Ivo and Shawn

all material copyright 2012: The Homunculus Group/The Gait Guys